Gemotions

The ping of the message made Michael jump. It was a friend request from Jason, the kid who had ruled the school with an iron fist, making Michael's life a series of small humiliations. The sight of Jason’s smiling face, tanned and beaming, filled him with a potent mixture of disbelief and…irritation. He felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to do something, anything, to disrupt that easy happiness.

He was sitting in his sparsely furnished apartment, the walls bare, the air thick with the smell of instant coffee. His latest project had been rejected. The rejection letter sat on his desk, another harsh reminder of his failures. He glanced at the messy pile of bills next to the laptop and felt a familiar tightness in his chest.

Jason's profile revealed a life of effortless success. Wealth. Adventure. Freedom. Michael’s own struggles, his constant fight for recognition, suddenly seemed even more pointless. He hated the way his stomach clenched when he imagined the casual ease with which Jason had achieved everything. He found himself imagining a thousand petty ways to undermine Jason's perfect facade.